


Find Her Way by Moonlight

by Hllangel



Category: Bomb Girls
Genre: F/F, Misses Clause Challenge
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-20
Updated: 2012-12-20
Packaged: 2017-11-21 19:14:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,811
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/601163
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hllangel/pseuds/Hllangel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Betty knows everything about Kate and three things about Marion. But she doesn't know how to get her back.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Find Her Way by Moonlight

**Author's Note:**

  * For [amo_amare](https://archiveofourown.org/users/amo_amare/gifts).



Betty knows almost everything there is to know about Kate Andrews; but Kate is a work of fiction. She cannot even begin to find Kate, because Kate will not be found, for all that she was real enough to touch for a time. Kate Andrews is the truth, but Marion is the reality.

Betty knows three things about Marion: first, her name. Second, that her mother is sick. Third, that her father is a preacher. 

After a life of being constantly beaten by reality, Betty does not hold out much hope of finding her dreams; each one is always just out of reach. 

She's lucky, though. Gladys is a dreamer. Gladys who knows Betty's truth, and Kate's truth, and still dreams that the two of them can coexist. 

* * * 

_I. Wherever they go_

The first time Gladys shows up at the rooming house on a Sunday morning, Betty is surprised. She'd been out on her own the night before, looking for a place where the other VicMu girls wouldn't find her. The club had been warm and open, and she'd stayed late. Which is why she was still sleeping when Gladys burst through the door, perfectly put together. 

"Get up sleepyhead," she said, pulling back the covers that Betty was still burrowed under. "We're going to church." 

Betty scrubbed her eyes before sitting up. "I'm not exactly the churchgoing type, princess." 

"Neither am I, my parent's opinions to the contrary. But we are today. I have a plan." 

"In my experience, plans that involve church are not good plans." 

"Get dressed, Betts. I'll tell you on the way."

With that, Gladys bows out again, clicking the door softly shut behind her. Not being one for many frills, Betty is ready to go within a few minutes. She sighs as she combs her hair, the harsh light in the washroom highlighting her still-bruised eye. It's still a bit tender, and it's fading quickly, but Betty feels like a liar when she puts powder over it. It feels wrong, to cover up the souvenir of Kate's farewell. 

By the time she's ready, it's barely noticeable, but it'll be a fight to keep her hands from creeping up to test it every few minutes. If it can't be shown, she wants to feel it. 

The pews are nearly filled when they arrive, with just enough time to take off their coats and find a seat. Gladys is rushing her so much that Betty doesn't have time to wonder if she'll be struck down as they cross through the doors. 

Their mission is simple enough, even if Betty isn't sure how she'll accomplish it, or even if they're in the right place to try. 

"We have to start somewhere, Betts," Gladys had said on their way. "We know her father is a preacher, so we'll start with the churches in town. We can do that without my parents becoming suspicious." 

Betty fidgets through the service, and lets Gladys take the lead when everyone gets up to leave. She starts with people she apparently knows, because the small talk is centered on James and her upcoming wedding at first. Without any clear idea how it happens, Gladys is suddenly asking about street preachers, and learning that a friend of the woman's daughter got hassled near her work, and she's volunteering at a center for injured soldiers, and that's just scandalous. How dare that urchin talk to a lady of breeding!

Gladys agrees that it is awful, and that she's never had that problem and hopes she never does, and then they're moving through the crowd and out to the steps. 

"She's not going to be in the city," Betty says. "She ran away from home with false papers. You don't do that if you're going to stay close." 

"We'll find her, Betts. As long as it takes." Gladys smiled. "It's not all bad news. There are street preachers here in town, so we can see where they like to work. Maybe one of them knows Kate's father." 

"Does this mean we have to go to church every week?"

"You'll hardly get burned at the stake just for showing up." Gladys can hardly contain her smile.

"You don't know that," Betty responds, but she's smiling too.

* * * 

_II. First of all pleasures_

"I've done it!" Gladys says, coming through the factory gates. 

Betty takes a drag on her cigarette before letting the butt fall to the ground. "You found her?" They haven't been looking long, but it feels like forever, especially since they've been going to church every Sunday, a new one every time. 

"No. But I got Carol to approve a day off for both of us next weekend so we can go to Montreal. My parents think that I'm going to see someone to buy my wedding dress." 

"And they're ok with you going on your own?"

"They think I'm meeting James there. And he knows, so he can cover for us if someone asks." 

"But what will they say when you come back without a dress?"

"You sound like you don't want to find her, Betts." 

Betty takes a moment to think. She wants Kate back, but every time she remembers the awful night that Kate left all she can hear is Kate's sweet voice calling her a deviant, telling her that she's full of sin.

It hurt enough the first time, and Betty doesn't know if she can handle it a second time. 

"I do. I just ..." Betty looks around, sees Vera and Edith and all the other girls standing around waiting for their shift to start. Who knows what they might overhear. "Don't want to talk about it here."

"After our shift's over, then. No one will be paying attention when they're too busy drinking and dancing." 

They don't speak until after work, when they hop a streetcar back to the rooming house and then walk with the rest of the girls out to the nearest club. There are plenty of soldiers around, so most of the others aren't paying them the slightest bit of attention, which is exactly how Betty wants it. 

"So tell me what's going on," Gladys says, handing over a drink. 

Betty needs a few sips before she can, and then it comes tumbling out. "I don't know what I'll do if we find her and she won't want to come back." 

"We won't let that happen." 

"How can you know that? We're the sinners. We drink and smoke and do all manner of things that she called evil."

Gladys puts her hand on Betty's shoulder. "That wasn't her. That was her father. You know that." 

"But it's her voice that I hear in my nightmares."

* * * 

_III. Looking at the stars_

Their day off is a Saturday, and they plan to get a coach on Friday evening, but as it turns out they don't need it. Outside the terminal are many soldiers with their girls, and a line of people singing, while the preacher talks to thin air about sin and the error of modern times. 

At first, Betty doesn't pay too much attention. She knows his voice, she's heard it a thousand times on the street, and it's never the right one. But then he stops talking and another voice, clear, full, light takes his place, and Betty stops short, unable to move. 

Gladys continues on, but Betty manages to catch her jacket with her fingertips. 

"Is that -?" Gladys asks. 

Betty has to swallow around the lump in her throat before she can nod and whisper, "Yes." Clearing her throat, she says, "I can't go over there. If he sees me he'll take her and run. We'll never find her again."

They stand still, in the rush of the crowd. 

"I have a plan," Gladys says a minute later. "He doesn't know me, so I can get her attention, see if she'll come back." 

Betty doesn't know what else to do. She wants to just grab Kate's hand, go back to the rooming house, and lock the door so that Kate's father can't get in again. She has a feeling that this time, Kate will stay once she's out of her father's reach. Maybe it's just her last spark of optimism. 

"Then, what," She asks Gladys. "We can't go back to the rooming house. He's been there, and he'll find her again."

"Take my ticket. Take Kate to Montreal, the way we planned. I'll stay in your room until you get back." Gladys hands her suitcase to Betty. "Stay here. I'll be right back." 

Betty watches as Gladys edges her way towards the edge of the crowd, moving past the invisible barrier that separates Kate and her family from the rest. It doesn't take long for Kate to notice her and freeze. As soon as her voice drops out Betty hears it. She knows Kate's father can hear it too, and she looks at him, to find that he's turned sharply. He may not know Gladys, but from the expression on his face it's clear that he knows that she's from the factory, at the very least. 

She watches, frozen, as Gladys steps aside and nods back at Betty, directing Kate's gaze. When their eyes meet, Betty's heart breaks. She can't do this. Kate's cheeks are hollow and her eyes are set, and Betty is sure that this was all for nothing, so she breaks the gaze and closes her eyes, fighting back tears and turning away. 

And then Gladys is back, pressing a paper ticket into Betty's hand. 

"Go. Now," She says. 

Betty looks up to see that Kate is with her, looking more fragile than Betty remembers. 

"My mother's holding him back for now, but she won't last long," Kate says. 

There's a note of panic in her voice, and it finally breaks through. Betty take's her hand. "Come on. We've got a room waiting in Montreal." 

"Take my case," Gladys says to Kate. There's money inside for the room, and you'll need clothes." 

"I can't - " Kate starts, but Gladys interrupts. 

"You can. You'll bring them back." Her voice is sure, and it's enough to get Betty moving, for real. 

"Come on." She takes Kate's hand and tugs gently. They move together through the crowd, weaving around the soldiers and finding their way to the platform where their coach is waiting.

They leave their luggage with the porter and Betty climbs the steps first, turning when she realizes a few steps up that Kate isn't following her. 

Her hand is on the door, but she's looking back, searching the crowd for something, and Betty is pretty sure she knows what. 

Betty's found her voice, though. 

"Now or never, Kate," she says, coming back down a step and holding out her hand. 

Kate looks back one more time. "Now," she says, taking Betty's hand and jumping in.

* * * 

fin. 

**Author's Note:**

> My apologies to Oscar Wilde for rampant butchering of his words in the name of titles.
> 
> Many thanks to my GF for handholding me through the Betty feels and for my Beta E for whipping this into shape. Any remaining mistakes are my own. I hope you like it!


End file.
